Manipur: 'Rebels' who nurtured a political ambition

KOLKATA: Yambem Biren, who declared himself the chief minister of the "Manipur state council", and Narengbam Samarjit, the self-proclaimed external defence minister, have both been actively involved in politics, and kept their plans of declaring a "Manipur government in exile" a secret even to family members.
Samarjit is the chairman of Sangai Holdings Private Limited, a multi-crore company operating out of Manipur since 2007-08.The company has 12-13 subsidiary companies, which are operating in West Bengal, three states in the Northeast, and has two international centres in Dubai, and Tokyo. He is married to Tilotama and the couple has two children.
When Samarjit, the self-declared external and defence minister, left Manipur in August this year for business meetings of the company starting from Dubai, he did not take his family members along, Akoijam Deepanaand, vice-chairman of Salai Holdings Holding Pvt Ltd, said. He further said investors in the company should not panic as the former chairman's actions will not have any influence on the operations of the company.
Samarjit also founded the political party, North East India Development Party (NEIDP), which fielded several candidates in the assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Manipur but without any success. NEIDP president Dr Ng Bijoy said, "Samarjit founded our party, but we have nothing to do with him or his personal decisions. The CWC of the company did give us some funds for the party but nothing more."
Biren, the self-declared chief minister of the Manipur state council, is the general secretary of the Humanist Party, Manipur State Council. He has boycotted the state assembly elections since 2012. Biren, hailing from Kwakeithel locality of Manipur, has been advocating for implementation of the Constitution of Manipur, which has been in place in the princely state after getting independence from Britain.